Marston Green is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in Solihull in between Birmingham International and Lea Hall. The station is literally at the end of the runway for Birmingham Airport though Birmingham International is the station for airline passengers as this is near the terminal building.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
MGN
Opened:
1838
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the London & Birmingham Railway in 1838 on their line between Birmingham and Coventry. The station originally had two goods sidings and a refuge siding. The goods yard was closed in 1964. The signalbox remained in use until 1976.
Due to the proximity of Birmingham Airport (originally Elmdon Aerodrome) there were emergency signals at the station for the event of an aeroplane landing on the railway line!
Both platforms originally had wooden buildings with canopies but following electrification of the line in the 1960s and a rebuild of the station in the mid-1970s nothing of the original station now remains [1]. The station is served by West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway.
TfW 158 838 passes through
Main station building
LNWR 350 107 arrives with a Birmingham bound service
View from the footbridge
View towards Birmingham
A London Euston bound Pendolino passes through
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Rugby to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2008) Fig. 99
Manchester Oxford Road, the second busiest station in central Manchester, serves lines going East-West across the city.
Information
Type:
National Rail
Station code:
MCO
Opened:
1849
Platforms:
5
The station was opened in 1849 by the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway (MSJAR) as Oxford Road. Originally the station was a small affair with a couple of platforms for services from the East including Manchester Piccadilly (then London Road). The station slowly expanded over the years with extra platforms and services added including West to Liverpool.
The station was rebuilt in 1903-4, with the platform layout redesigned. A further rebuilt took place in 1960 with the new station buildings with a roof that consisting of three overlapping cones, innovative architecture which found favour with a number of critics even Nikolaus Pevsner. The architect Max Clendinning intended the station to be imagined as a giant piece of furniture! [1]
Unfortunately the roof, which was mostly made from timber [2], has proven rather prone to leaking and has required regular attention. Further improvements of the station have taken place in the 1990s and 2010s as it has become steadily busier. It is proposed to lengthen the station platforms as part of the Northern Hub project though this would require the knocking down of a number of adjacent properties, the station being in an awkward trapezium shaped site.
The station is served by Northern, Trans Pennine Express, Transport for Wales and East Midlands Trains.
TPE 185 444 departs
View down the platform
Station sign
Notice the canopies
Station frontage
A TPE train prepares to depart
[1] David Lawrence, British Rail Designed 1948-97 (Ian Allan, 2016) p. 78 [2] Bruce Peter, The Changing Face of British Railways (Lily Publications, 2018) p. 139
Manchester Piccadilly is the largest station in Manchester and one of the busiest interchange stations outside of London.
TPE 185 148 will shortly be departing for Cleethorpes
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line, Welsh Marshes Line and other local and regional lines), Manchester Metrolink
Station code:
MAN
Opened:
1842
Platforms:
14 (+ 2 Metrolink)
The station was opened as Store Street in 1842 by the Manchester & Birmingham Railway [1]. At opening it had only two platforms. Within a couple of years it was owned by the London & North Western Railway following amalgamations and the station was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847. The station was also served by the Manchester, South Junction & Altrincham Railway after 1849. The MSJ&AR later became the Great Central Railway and finally the LNER after 1923, the LNWR became the LMS.
By the 1850s the station was becoming overcrowded and the station was rebuilt and expanded in 1862 with the original trainshed roof built. However the respite did not last long and there was another rebuild and expansion in the early 1880s. The next rebuild came in 1960 [2] as part of the modernisation and electrification of the West Coast Main Line, the station was also renamed Manchester Piccadilly [3]. Much of the station was changed with one of the only (virtually) untouched parts being the Victorian trainshed roof.
Manchester Piccadilly gained two tramstops on the new Manchester Metrolink in 1992, the tramstops are in what was once the station's undercroft. The station was refurbished in 2002.
Manchester Piccadilly hosts a mixture of intercity, regional and local services. Twelve of the fourteen platforms terminate at the station while two are through platforms (the former MSJ&AR platforms) for services to North Wales, Scotland and Liverpool via Manchester Oxford Road. The station hosts services by a number of companies including Northern, Trans Pennine Express and Cross Country though is managed by Network Rail.
Northern 142 020 and 029 rest at Manchester Piccadilly
Northern 319 368 has arrived
View from the footbridge
Passengers walk towards the concourse
Northern 142 061 departs
[1] Steven Dickens, Chester to Manchester Line through time (Amberley, 2016) p. 90 [2] David Lawrence, British Rail Architecture 1948-97 (Crecy, 2018) p. 106 [3] Dickens p. 93
Maida Vale is one of the stations built for the Bakerloo Line's extension from Paddington to Queen's Park, the station opening in 1915.
When the station opened it was the first station (and uniquely at the time) to be staffed entirely by women [1] who were being hired to roles previously reserved by men to replace men who had gone to the war.
The station building is to the common, of the time, Leslie Green design though was designed by his assistant Stanley Heaps. Inside the ticket foyer is an interesting mosaic of the London Underground "bullseye" logo, built not long before the logo changed to the one used ever since. The station is Grade II listed.
A Bakerloo Line 72ts train stands at Maida Vale
Station exterior, with original signage
Bullseye mosaic
Analogue time keeping between the platforms
Main entrance
[1] Paul Moss, London Underground (Haynes, 2014) p. 56
The station was opened by British Rail in 1988 to support and eastern expansion of Bracknell. Next to the station is a Tesco supermarket, the access road and car park of the station being on Tesco owned land. The main station building is a brick chalet type affair. The building contains a booking office and a waiting room. The other platform has a shelter. Access between the platforms is via a footbridge.
The platforms were extended in 2016 to be able to accomodate ten-car trains. The station is managed by South Western Railway with a usual train frequency of every half hour in both directions.
Morden Road is a stop on the London Tram network in south west London between Merton Park and Phipps Bridge.
The two types of tram operated by London Trams pass at Morden Road
Information
Type:
London Trams
Opened:
2000
Platforms:
2
The tram stop was opened in 2000, it is on the site of the former Morden Road railway station which closed in 1997. The tram line is singled between Morden Road and Phipps Bridge.
The tram stop is less than a kilometre away from Morden and South Wimbledon underground stations on the Northern Line (the tram stop is more or less inbetween them).
Mansfield Town is a stop on the Robin Hood Line in Nottinghamshire between Sutton Parkway and Mansfield Woodhouse.
East Midlands Railway 170 419 at Mansfield
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Robin Hood Line)
Station code:
MFT
Opened:
1849 (Closed 1964)
Re-opened:
1995
Platforms:
2
The station was opened in 1849 by the Midland Railway after the purchase of the Mansfield & Pinxton Railway. The current station buildings were built in 1872 after a rebuilding of the station in the early 1870s. The station was renamed Mansfield Town in 1952 [1] to differentiate it from the town's other two stations in the nationalised era. Station signage still carries this name though it is also known as just Mansfield.
Passenger services to Mansfield ceased in 1964 and much of the station including the overall roof were demolished though the station building survived and gained listed status in 1978, it later became a cafe and then a supermarket. The Robin Hood Line was re-opened for passenger services between Nottingham and Workshop in 1995 (though the route was not fully re-opened to Worksop until 1998).
The station is adjacent to Mansfield bus station and is managed and served by East Midlands Railway. There are up to two trains an hour in each direction.
Station building
Down the platform, notice the arrow - a feature of stations on the Robin Hood Line
Station entrance
View down the platform
170 419 departs
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Ambergate to Mansfield (Middleton Press, 2020) Map. XVII
Meadowhall Interchange is a transport hub in north-east Sheffield with interchange between heavy rail and bus services and since 1994 the Sheffield Supertram.
Tram 119 at the terminus
Information
Type:
Sheffield Supertram
Opened:
1994
Platforms:
2
Meadowhall Interchange railway station opened in 1990, in 1994 the Supertram platforms were opened. The stop is the terminus of the first part of the Supertram to open on a line from Fitzalan Square, this is now the Supertram's Yellow Line.
National Rail
(Merseyrail Northern & Wirral Lines)
Station code:
MRF
Opened:
1977
Platforms:
3
The station was opened in 1977 as the replacement for the closed terminus Liverpool Exchange [1]. The line was continued through Moorfields to Liverpool Central. The Wirral Loop platform, which is at a deeper level than the other platforms, did not open until a few months after the Northern Line platforms and shares the same grp (glass-reinforced polyester) cladding design as the other new stations on the loop [2].
Moorfields is the third busiest station on the Merseyrail network and the largest underground station. It is managed and served by Merseyrail.
View down the platform
This way for the Wirral Line
Northern Line platform showing the grp cladding
This way for the Northern Line!
Northern Line platform
[1] Chris Heaps, BR Diary 1968-1977 (Ian Allan, 1988) p. 114
[2] David Lawrence, British Rail Architecture 1948-97 (Crecy Publishing, 2018) p. 156
Machynlleth is a stop on the Cambrian Line in Powys between Caersws and Dovey Junction.
TfW Class 158 at Machynlleth
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Cambrian Line)
Station code:
MCN
Opened:
1863
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway in 1863, this is four years after the town's first station, a narrow gauge Corris Railway station. The line later became part of the Cambrian Railway though in 1922 it was absorbed by the Great Western Railway. The station had a small engine shed which has survived and is still in railway though these days used for servicing diesel multiple units. The goods yard remained in use until 1974 [1].
Trains bound for Aberystwyth and Pwllheli from Shrewsbury (usually as far as Birmingham International) divide at Machynlleth, similarly England bound trains merge at the station. Access between the platforms is via a footbridge. The main station building has survived and is used as a booking office. The station is managed by Transport for Wales.
Main station building
Down the platform
View from the footbridge
Footbridge
Looking up towards the station building
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Machynlleth to Barmouth (Middleton Press, 2009) Fig. 7
